The present invention relates a synthetic speech control system in an electronic apparatus and, more particularly, to a speech speed control system in an electronic cash register which includes a synthetic speech system.
Generally, the synthetic speech speed is slower than the calculation speed responding to the key operation in an electronic apparatus. Accordingly, there is a possibility that new information must be audibly announced before the last information announcement is completed. Thus, in the prior art system, the previous part of the last message may be omitted due to the new message.
In order to prevent the above-mentioned defect, a synthetic speech system has been developed wherein the speech data is first stored in a buffer memory and the speech anouncement is conducted in accordance with the speech data stored in the buffer memory. However, even in such a system, accurate announcement is not ensured when the speech data exceeds the capacity of the buffer memory. Furthermore, the time delay of the speech announcement becomes long when the speech data is introduced into the buffer memory at a considerably high speed.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a synthetic speech control system which ensures accurate announcement even when the speech data is introduced into the system at a considerably high speed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a synthetic speech speed control system in an electronic cash register having a synthetic speech generation system.
Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
To achieve the above objects, pursuant to an embodiment of the present invention, the speech data is first introduced into a buffer memory. The speech data stored in the buffer memory is sequentially read out and applied to a synthetic speech generation system. A first detection system is provided for detecting the data input condition into the buffer memory. A second detection system detects the speech generation condition conducted by the synthetic speech generation system. A determination is carried out through the use of output signals derived from the first and second detection systems in order to check the empty capacity of the buffer memory. When the empty capacity of the buffer memory is less than a preselected value, a control signal is developed to speed up the synthetic speech generation operation.
In another preferred form, when the empty capacity of the buffer memory is less than a predetermined value, a control signal is developed in order to preclude the key input operation to be conducted to the electronic cash register. That is, the key input operation can be conducted only when the buffer memory has the memory capacity sufficient to store the new speech data.